Over 5,000 youths across the country attended New Horizons infotainment event held in Lagos recently. The event is the first of its kind in Africa and it is a new initiative that aims to combine IT and entertainment. New Horizons is using entertainment which is the universal language of the youths, to communicate important and life transforming ideas that will save them from the abyss of perpetual unemployment.
The music maestro Abolore Adegbola Akande popularly known as 9ice, Dan Foster-the popular radio talk show host from Cool FM and the hilarious comedian Yaw-another radio talk show host on the trendy programme Wazobia on Cool FM and his group were all in attendance to thrill, motivate and educate the participants on the benefits of acquiring Information Technology (IT) skills.
Dan Foster inspired the youths to be dedicated and focused towards achieving their lives dreams and ambitions; he shared his personal experiences whilst growing up in the USA of his journey towards becoming a radio talk show host, and how IT has enabled him to increase his productivity as well as allow him to work across continents thereby earning more money, he also informed the youths to have a positive self image of themselves and to aspire to be unique in all they do most especially by acquiring IT certification based skills to increase their chances success in the labour market. At the end of his presentation he gave out 500 scholarships from Oracle University, USA on behalf of New Horizons.
Mr. Julius of CISCO Corporation USA, told participants to take charge of their lives and be steadfast in their acquisition of IT based certification skills. He reiterated that only individuals who follow through stand the best chance of becoming successful people.
Mr. Tim Akano, managing director, New Horizons, told participants that the present century belongs to the Nigerian Youth, and that they must strive very hard to take their rightful place in the scheme of things in the world thereby leading Nigeria gallantly into the future. He added that, it was the duty of the youths to develop Nigeria as foreigners cannot do a better job than the indigenes.
He informed the youths that they were equally as intelligent as people from other parts of the world and that nothing should stand in their way in transforming Nigeria into a super-power.
Akano outlined the IT skills that participants should acquire in order to improve their chances of professional success, which include Oracle certifications such as (OCA, OCP), Microsoft certifications (MCSE, MCSD, MCSA), E-Business certifications (Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Knowledge Management) , Sun Java certifications (SJCD), CompTia certifications (A+, N+, S+), Information Security (Certified Ethical Hacking-CEH, Certified Hacking Forensic Investigator-CHFI) and CISCO based certifications (CCNA, CCNP, CCVP, CCSP).
9ice later took the stage and told the participants to aspire to acquire industry relevant IT skills to improve their chances in the labour market, he went ahead to treat the audience to some of his popular songs. At the end of his performance he gave out 500 CISCO based certification scholarships and 3 Laptops to individuals who won in the raffle draws.
It will be recalled that New Horizons had previously organized a job fair at the national stadium in Lagos, where more than 10,000 gathered to witness the event, they also put together a mobile scholarship initiative in a bid to emancipate the youths from the shackles of unemployment
